House Of Madness
by Spencers.philosophy
Summary: When you put Zach, Preston, Grant, Macey, Bex, and Cammie in the same house for an entire summer, you're asking for trouble.
1. Chapter 1

Intro/summary:

"Grant, go away."

"I'm not leaving until you tell me."

"Tell you what? To fuck off?"

* * *

"Have you ever been trapped in an elevator for 27 hours?"

"No."

"Well, there's a first time for everything!"

* * *

"Is that a tongue ring?"

"Yeah. I was trying to cut a tomato and the knife magically flew up and pierced my tongue."

"Ah. Talk about freak accidents."

* * *

"Ow!"

"What happened?"

"You just chunked a door knob at my head?"

"I did? Whoops. Sometimes my hands just go crazy…no control over them _at all_."

* * *

"Where are we?"

"I don't know."

"How'd we get here?"

"I don't know."

"Do you know anything?"

"I know something is going to smack you across your face in approximately 5 seconds."

* * *

"Shut up! I love this song!"

"This is a commercial."

"It's a pillow…it's a pet…it's a pillow pet!"

* * *

"I'm just thinking."

"Macey McHenry? Thinking? Hell _must _have froze over."

* * *

"Ewww! What is that giant, disgusting looking thing coming off your neck? It has hair! Ewww!"

"Is it a spider? Get it off me! Get it off!"

"Oh. Never mind, it's just your head."

* * *

_Never mess with Cammie Morgan._

_Never underestimate Bex Baxter._

_Never criticize Macey McHenry._

_Never judge Preston Winters._

_Never confuse Grant Newman._

_Never insult Zach Goode._

_And never, ever put Preston Winter, Grant Newman, Zach Goode, Cammie Morgan, Macey McHenry and Bex Baxter in the same house for an entire summer._

**A/N: Short, I know. But it's only an intro. I think I'm off to a nice start. Review or PM me and give tips and ideas, please?**


	2. Chapter 2

"Are you sure this isn't breaking a rule?" Liz asked us, as we crawled up the back of the mansion, dodging the cameras.

I thought, _Liz, what rules haven't we broke? _but instead told her, "It's considered studying," as nonchalantly as I could.

"Well, I mean, yes, it is considered studying but, I don't know. Call it premonition or just pure instinct but I have a bad feeling about this," Liz shared. Bex shrugged as if saying, It's just the spy in you.

I placed my foot on the next brick and held on tightly to the thin black cord. After pulling myself up I took a breath and glanced at Liz. Small, fragile, petite. Her thin rimmed glasses surely didn't help her whole "I may be small but I'm tough as nails" thing.

Okay, I'll be the first to admit that scaling one of the most high security places in the world probably at two in the morning isn't the brightest idea in the world. But what happened next was _totally _unexpected.

Liz shrieked as one of the bricks caved and she dropped about three stories before her feet landed with a thud onto a brick that was larger than the others. "Shit," I whispered.

I loosened my grip and slid down the rope, stopping just a few feet above Liz. "Oopsie daisy! I'm sorry!"

Bex suddenly dropped into view and stopped with a jolt. "Are you okay?" she asked, clearly worried about our little best friend.

"Yeah, I thi-" she started, but was interrupted by a very obnoxious and loud squeak. "Was that…?"

I gasped uncharacteristically as I saw my mom and Joe Solomon come out of the building. I looked towards Liz and pointed to her feet. She lowered her eyebrows so I dropped down and placed my feet onto the brick. Bex came down, her hair blowing wildly from the gust of wind. "I think this is a passage way," I guessed. "Just let me try it, okay?"

"Hurry!" she ordered. I glanced over at my headmistress and my teacher, who were still looking towards the lake, and sighed. I had at least thirty more seconds. I knelt down, ever so carefully and pushed the brick. Successfully, it moved. Liz stumbled a bit and Bex instructed her. "Jump, Liz."

She obeyed and as her feet came off the brick, I shoved it back. Sure enough, a small opening was right there. "Guys, come on!"

Liz swung her legs into the gap and crawled through the whole, disappearing into the darkness of the path. Bex followed suit and just as I was about to also, my mom whipped her around and looked me dead in the eye. I quickly looked away and entered the gap, following my friends and hoping that I wouldn't be royally fucked.

**BREAK**

Turns out, it led us straight to the dining hall. I smiled, knowing that all I had to do was go through one more passage way and would be in my room, safe and sound. At least until morning came. Sets of footsteps echoed from the hall, and we all shared worried glances before taking off to the bathroom. Liz didn't smile once.

I know you don't believe me. I mean, everyone has to smile in the middle of a totally scary, bad, terrible circumstance. But truthfully, she didn't. Not _once_.

Maybe she knew what it might cost us at that time. Maybe she was extremely focused on getting the hell out of there. It doesn't matter though. It never really did. It never really will.

After climbing through two more passage ways, we finally made it to our room.

I was asleep within minutes, but the last thought that raced through my mind was, _I am so going to be royally fucked. _

**A/N: I'm incredibly sorry. Truly, I am. For the shortness of this chapter, the amount of time to get this posted, and the suck-ish chapter itself. I know it kinda sucks, and would you believe me if I told you I got freaking writers block on the FIRST FREAKING CHAPTER? It made me so mad. Anyways. This is kind of a filler, leading up to something much, **_**much**_** cooler. I swear. Ugh. Plus, it's not even funny. Not one thing I wrote made me even **_**grin**_**. Ugh. This is a fail chapter. Sorry.**

**But review, and tell me what **_**you**_** think, it honestly means the world to me to get response (negative or positive) from y'all. **__


	3. Chapter 3

"Wake up, Cammie! If you don't I'll have to bloody kill you," Bex shouted into my ear, not seeming the least bit compassionate for me and my lack of sleep.

I cracked one eye open and it was like staring into the sun. I groaned and rolled over, stuffing my face into the pillow. I tried to think off a good comeback, but I gave up because of the hour and my head was incredibly sore from hitting it in the passage way. So I simply told her, "No. Five more minutes." And just when I thought she was actually going to leave me alone and go to breakfast without me, something hit the back of my head. And it hit me _hard_. My hand immediately clutched the spot it – whatever "it" was - hit me. "What the _hell_?" I demanded, sitting up and looking on the ground to find whatever it was that she threw at me. And then I noticed the hole in my door.

The hole where a shiny, gold knob once had been. I stared at Bex and shouted, "Ow!" as dramatically as I could without worrying girls from other rooms.

She just batted her eyes and twirled her hair, attempting to look innocent and naive. "What happened?" she asked, in a perfect, American dream child voice.

I hummed my pillow at her head while shouting, "You just chunked a door knob at my head?"

Bex placed her hand over her chest and gasped, acting aghast. "I did? Whoops. Sometimes my hands just go crazy… no control over them _at all_. Now get your ass out of bed! Your mum wants us."

"Shit," I said, to no one in particular. And then suddenly I realized something was off. "Where's Liz and Macey?" I threw the covers off and marched over to my closet.

"Probably on their way to your mum's office. Macey's seriously pissed at us because she's going to get in trouble. Hurry up; I'd rather not piss of the headmistress, too." Bex rolled her eyes and I slipped on my skirt. I pulled on my shirt and sweater after.

"She won't get into trouble. We'll tell the truth. That Macey told us to stay, but we ignored her and went into sublevel one, grabbed some cords and grip boots, and scaled the side of the building as practice for Covert Operations 101. No biggie." Bex raised her eyebrows, as if she didn't believe it would be that easy. Honestly, I knew it wasn't going to be that easy. But I didn't want Bex to feel guilty.

I eyed the door and sighed. "Bex, I'd open the door, but something seems to be missing."

"Hmmm…strange. We'll have to let the custodian know." And, in a wink, we were on our way to Headmistress Morgan's office. I giggled a little out loud. Calling her that never gets old.

**BREAK**

"Girls, what on earth were you thinking?" My mom's voice seemed off. More bitchy than usual, I decided a moment later.

"Mom, not to burst your bubble or anything, but you told me 'Don't think. Go on instinct,' so I did. It was just a random urge-" I started, but was rudely cut off.

Liz decided to take over and began with, "Mrs. Morgan, this is entirely my fault. You see, I told them that I needed internet connection to break this code for extra credit, and my service from the room just wasn't cutting it, so I wanted to go onto the roof. I didn't want to go alone, so they came with m-"

"Actually, Headmistress Morgan, the other girls had nothing to do with it. They are just trying to take the blame for me. And I'm so sorry. I thought I saw Oynx go onto the roof so-" Bex tried, unsuccessfully and my mom interrupted her.

"Rebecca, darling. Don't try that with me. I saw three girls. _Three_. It doesn't matter which one suggested it or why the heck any of you were up there. _Who was on the roof_?" she demanded, with even more edge.

It was quiet for what seemed like forever before Bex piped up with a very simple, "Me."

Mom picked up a pen and scribbled down her name. She placed her hand lightly on her hip and continued, "Who else?"

"Me," I admitted, receiving a glare of disapproval. She neatly jotted my name down next to Bex's.

"And?" she demanded, one last time. Mom looked between Macey and Liz, one who sat there, looking bored out of her mind and the other looked nervous and jumpy. I'm pretty sure you know who is who. "Well?" my mom prompted

As soon as Liz opened her mouth, Macey blurted out, "It was me, too. I'm sorry."

"It's going to take more than a 'sorry' to get off the hook this time, ladies. I am very disappointed in all three of you. Maybe you girls don't understand why our academy works the way it does. We want the best for you girls, and we don't want to put any of you in danger," Mom gushed. "You could've died up there! Do you understand the seriousness of the situation?"

"Yes, ma'am," the three of us answered simultaneously.

"I love every single girl in this academy as if they're my own, and if anything ever, _ever _happens to any of you…."

"Mom, trust me. We've all learned our lesson. Can we go now, please?" I suggested, eager to talk to Macey about why she took the blame if she was as pissed as Bex said she was.

"Yes, yes. But, the three of you need to come in here for lunch so we can discuss the proper punishment for this little problem," she told us. I nodded my head as we all stood and began exiting the office. "Oh, and girls?"

"Yes?"

"Don't think for one _second _you can ever pull something like this off again, understood?"

"Understood." And with that, we rushed out of her office as fast as we could.

**BREAK**

"Macey!" Liz stage-whispered. "Why did you take the blame for me?"

Macey shrugged as if they were talking about the weather or why she bought a Coke instead of a Pepsi. "It's not a big deal."

"Are you kidding me? It's a huge fucking deal!" I stated, wanting to know about this probably just as much as Liz.

"Yeah, Macey. It's not every day a girl takes serious punishment that she didn't deserve. No offense, Liz," Bex added, taking a bite of waffle.

"None taken," Liz was quick to say, holding up an apple.

"Well, when Liz and I were walking she kept on saying how much trouble she was going to be in when her parents found out, assuming that they would find out. My parents wouldn't care so I just figured it was better for me to take the blame. Besides, what's your mom going to do? Make us mop the foyer every day for a month? It's not going to be _that_ bad," Macey shared, finishing her glass of OJ.

We all nodded and Liz acted completely grateful.

Turns out, the idea we had for punishment was very, _very _far off.

**A/N: Eeeeep! Yay! I'm not ashamed of this chapter at all! And guess what! I made a brand new outline and it is AMAZING compared to the old one! *happy dances* Now, be a doll and review, would ya? ; )**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey! I know it has been forever since I've updated. Sorry. I've been helping rebel-like-crazy with ****Unpredictable ****and when I have free time, I'm not going to automatically think: WRITE! Oh, no. I automatically think: SLEEP! or EAT! Anyways, here's the next chapter. Enjoy!**

Macey, Bex, and I got very nervous when Mom didn't immediately tell us what our punishment would be. When I asked her about it, she just told me, "Wait, kiddo. I'm really busy right now." So we waited. But it wasn't easy.

After waiting three hours on the first day, Macey freaked out. "What if she's going to kick us all out?"

"Relax, Macey. She can't kick us out. We know too much," I mumbled.

Macey stared at me. "Cammie, do you not realize what this school is capable of? They're probably just waiting for the right time, and then out of no where – BAM! – someone knocks us out and puts some purple gas in us and then ships us to Switzerland! We wouldn't remember anything! Not our names, not each other. It wouldn't surprise me if we totally forgot how to talk!"

Bex, Liz, and I just stared at her in amazement. "Macey," Bex said slowly. "Do I need to call the bloody ambulance? Are you okay? You didn't hit your head or anything earlier, did you?"

Macey sighed and sat down. "I'm really worried about this, guys. It's so aggravating not to know what's going on!"

"You shouldn't have taken the blame for me, Mace. Really. I mean, if you're as stressed about this as you seem, we can just go talk to Cammie's mom and tell her the truth," Liz offered.

Bex was quick to say, "No. Confessing that we lied to the Headmistress wouldn't make this situation any better." We all realized that she was right.

Well, at the moment we knew she was right. Later though, curiosity got the best of me.

"Guys! We totally don't know what she could be planning! What if they send us to the COC to get us killed? I mean, I know my mom would never do that, but what if the people in charge of _her _make her send us to them! It would be awful!" I cried.

Bex just rolled her eyes and sat down on Liz's bed. "Cammie, they want to punish us. Not murder us and have to cover it up. Besides, the CIA wouldn't let anyone kill the best around, would they?"

"Yeah, I guess. But still! I mean, what could be taking so long? It's been a little less than 24 hours since we got in trouble. Bex, I'm kind of scared," I admitted.

Macey wrapped her arms around me. "Don't worry," she whispered. "Me and Bex will be right there with you. Remember?"

I nodded and hugged her back, feeling at ease for the moment. My best friends would always be there for me, which is comforting.

At lunch, though, Liz had a mental break-down. One minute, she was totally smiling and laughing like any other time, and the next tears were falling down her cheek, sliding right off her face and making a small puddle on her French fries.

"What's wrong, hon?" Bex asked her, throwing an arm around her shoulder.

Liz wiped the tears off of her face and told us in a shaky voice, "It's just, Macey doesn't deserve this. I mean, I know it's going to be really bad. Like, really, really, completely horrible and it's my fault! Not Macey's! I'm sorry, Macey. I should've told the truth but I-"

"What are you talking about?" Tina interrupted.

Liz met Tina's gaze and easily lied, "Nothing. I mean, I accidentally got a stain on one of Macey's skirts and I feel really guilty."

Tina looked a little suspicious, but shrugged it off when her stomach growled so she could go back to eating.

"Liz, don't apologize. If the roles were reversed, you would do the same. Don't feel bad about this, okay? Promise me that you won't feel guilty?" Macey whispered; she didn't want Tina to overhear anything and start a rumor.

Liz nodded, but we all knew that she was going to feel guilty no matter what anyone told her. It's just how Liz is.

The next two days, we had all but forgotten about it. That is, until my mom's voice chimed in a clear, ringing voice over the intercom, "Please excuse the interruption. Macey McHenry, Cameron Morgan, Rebecca Baxter, please report to my office. Thank you."

Liz gave us a small grin and a, "Good luck," before the three of us started up the stairs to go to my mom's office. It was a room all of us had visited many times but never under circumstances like this.

When reached the single wooden door we shared worried glances. Bex sighed and then twisted the knob, revealing the room that I had been dreading to see.

"Hello. Please sit down." Mom's voice sounded beautiful again instead of bitchy, which brought comfort. Relief flooded through me because now I knew that she wasn't planning on sending us to the COC or knock us out and shove purple gas in us and ship us to Switzerland.

"Hi, Mom," I replied, flopping onto a comfy green chair that kind of swallows you when you sit in it. Being as comfortable as I was, I almost forgot why we were in there. Almost. "So, you've decided what you're going to do with us…?"

She flashed us a perfect smile before telling us, "Oh yes. I found the _perfect _punishment for you all." Instantly, I knew that Bex and Macey saw the mischievous glint in her eyes, too.

My looked each of us in the eye before telling us, "Well I have a mission for you girls. All of you will fly to New Orleans, Louisiana for this mission. When you get there, you will find your partners. Trust me; you'll know them when you see them. Girls, this may sound fun… Just make sure you're always careful, okay? Sometimes spies get caught up with the adrenaline that they forget what the rush is coming from. _Danger_. And it lurks around every corner."

"Are you serious?" I asked, a smile slowly creeping across my face. My mom simply nodded. "Um, don't get me wrong, but that sounds more like a reward than a punishment."

My mom smiled, "Girls, there is _one _thing I forgot to mention. It is you all's job to teach Preston Winters _everything _that Gallagher Academy has taught you." And just like that, my smile was gone.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Okay, so I went to put this chapter on yesterday, but it didn't load or something. Anyways, here's the chapter!**

"Hello, ladies." Preston Winter's voice was perfectly clear, exactly like I remembered. He was wearing a brown button-up collared shirt with khaki pants and a pair of sparkling white tennis shoes. They couldn't have been more than a week old.  
"Hello, Preston," I replied, using the thick country accent I was instructed to use. "It's so great to finally be able to meet such a striking young man!" He smiled and extended his hand. I quickly grabbed it and shook it while telling him, "I'm Charlee. You'll be renting a room in my parents' mansion. I'll show you around."  
Macey stepped up next to me and flashed her award winning smile at Preston. "Hello. I'm Charlee's friend, Claire. It nice to meet you. Would you like a bottle of sparkling water?" Macey offered, but since she was supposed to have a New Orleans accent her 'water' sounded more like 'wata.'  
"No thanks. Who are you?" he asked, making eye-contact with Bex.  
Bex flipped her hair over her shoulder and declared, "My name's Alix. Pleasure to meet you." She grabbed his hand and gave it a firm shake before dropping her arm back down to her side. "Um, Charlee, where are the other guests?"  
I raised my eyebrows and shrugged my shoulders. "Maybe they're running late?" I guessed.  
She nodded but Macey and I both saw her eyes linger to the room on my left. I quickly glanced over and saw two young men standing there, both with their arms crossed across their chest. "I'm guessing that you girls are 'Charlee, Alix, and Claire' I've been hearing so much about," the boy on the left said. His voice rang with familiarity, but I couldn't quite place it.  
I nodded and tucked a strand of my new red hair behind my ear. "I'm Charlee. This is Claire and Alix," I said, motioning to the two girls who stood beside me. "And this," I added, "is Preston Winters. He's going to be here for the summer. Are you the other guests my mom said to wait for?"  
The boy on the right smiled a big, goofy smirk. My eyes widened. A small gasp escaped my lips. I froze up.  
"Yeah that's us. Is everything, alright, Charlee?" the boy with the smirk asked. His eyes met mine.  
I swallowed and shut my eyes tight before opening them again. "I-I um. I just need s-some water," I explained. I quickly navigated my way around the boys and walked to the kitchen. I grabbed bottled water out of the fridge and brought it to my lips. I quickly swallowed down a few gulps before returning to the main room.  
Macey shot me a worried glance while asking, "Is everything fine, Charlee?" I nodded and smiled, not trusting my voice.  
"Alright, what are your names?" she asked the boys.  
"I'm Zach, and that's Grant," the one on the right replied, the smirk never leaving his face.  
They're not using fake names? I thought. Of course not. They have never met Preston before. They have no reason to use fake names.  
"Well, hello. Umm, I'll just show you to your rooms," I muttered. "Follow me."  
As we started up the stairs Bex started rambling, "New Orleans is just filled with wonderful history! Especially the French Quarter. We could go sometime and get a Tarot Card reading done! They're only three dollars, so no sweat. It's cheap, cheap, cheap!"  
Preston mumbled something below his breath as we reached the second floor. I couldn't make out his exact words, but I know it had something to do with him being a millionaire.  
"Preston, you're staying on this floor. Claire's staying down here, too," I announced, glancing at Macey.  
Macey grabbed Preston's left hand. "I'll show you," she told them. She led Preston to the room at the very far end of the hall. Both of them disappeared into his room.  
I couldn't get over the fact that my mom had arranged Blackthorne Boys to come stay with us. That's what took my mom so long. She made a punishment within a punishment! I mean, it's great to see them again but I want to train Preston the way I was taught, without Zach arguing with me about every little move. I mean, P&E with him was horrible! Every punch I threw, every kick I swung, every move I made, Zach was always telling me how I moved my body wrong or that I should keep my torso upright and things like that! And now we were going to have to teach Preston freaking Winters how to fight and defend and, well, spy. This ought to be oodles of fun, I thought sarcastically.  
Zach motioned to the second set of stairs and instructed me, "Let's get going. We have a lot to chat about."  
When we got out earshot from Preston, I went ballistic. "What are you guys doing here?" I shouted. "This is our mission! Why did you all have to come?"  
Grant cracked a grin and Zach responded, "You're not thrilled to see me Gallagher Girl? That hurts me deeply. That hurts me right here." He pointed to the right side of his chest.  
"Zach, your heart's on the other side," Bex sighed, her British accent getting thicker with every word.  
"Right," he said, dropping his hand down. "Anyways, Blackthorne got a call from Gallagher asking specifically for us. Once I saw you, Macey, and Bex I was a bit surprised, but I'm happy I didn't show it as much as you did. Nice hair, by the way." He reached over and ruffled my hair, making it fly all over the place.  
Bex slapped his hand away. "Macey would bloody kill you if she knew you just did that to Cammie's hair. She spent over an hour fixing it."  
Zach reached over to Bex and did the same thing to her hair, while telling us, "In all honesty, I'm not frightened by Macey. Not one bit."  
"You should be," a voice snapped. "I can be very, very scary at times, Goode. Don't piss me off. And don't ever touch Cammie or Bex's hair ever, ever again, understood?" she asked, but she went on before he could even reply. "Preston is unpacking his things so he should be while. We need to talk." Macey pivoted around and started walking back down the stairs, her stilettos clacking loud against the hardwood flooring that was in the mansion.  
Suddenly she stopped and whipped her head around. "Remember the last time you two were together undercover? I believe that you were smashed together in a train."  
"What made you say that?" I spat back.  
"I was just thinking," she replied, a smile slowly playing across her lips.  
"Macey McHenry? Thinking? Hell must have froze over," Grant, who had been completely silent until now, piped in.  
"Grant, don't get me started on the horrible things I could say about you and your peanut sized brain," she retorted.  
"At least my brain isn't the size of a walnut!"  
"A walnut is at least 6 times bigger than a peanut, Grant," Zach informed him.  
Macey sighed, "I rest my case."  
A whole summer with these people and I could already feel my intelligence level sinking lower and lower…

**A/N: Thanks to: PreppyEmoGirl and 2lazy2b clever!**


	6. Chapter 6

Preston is a light-sleeper. Like, _really, _really light sleeper. He'd wake up if a fly was by him. Underwater. Dying. _Because he's that light of a sleeper._

Why, Cammie, are you telling me this, you may be wondering. And my answer is simple. I may or may not have had to put a dissolvable sleeping pill in his glass of orange juice that night. And once he was asleep, Bex may or may not have put a Napotine patch on his forehead just to make sure he'd stay asleep. And by may or may not, I mean we totally did.

And yeah, I guess I feel a _little_ guilty about it, but we had some serious shit to cover.

So ten minutes after Bex put the Napotine patch on his head, we all met downstairs.

"So, how do we even start?" Macey asked.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Awesome. None of us have even the slightest clue," she sighed.

We sat there in a few moments of silence, each of us thinking hard about how we could do this. How do you make an average person a spy? _Trust_. He'd have to trust us enough to know that we weren't just joking around, just trying to confuse him or make fun of him. He needed to trust us. But there was no way he was going to trust Alix, Claire, or Charlee. He'd never even met them until the night before. Trust doesn't come from letting him stay in our mansion. Trust doesn't come from someone telling another person, "Trust me," it comes from a relationship. Like the short relationship Bex and I built with him while saving his ass and the relationship Macey made with him while touring across the US with him and… well… what happened behind the scenes of the political campaign.

"We have to ditch our disguises. He needs to know who we are, so he can trust us. Plus, then he'll understand how Macey and I won that fight. I mean, if the roles were reversed, I never would trust three random girls who my parents sent me live with so I could be 'normal'," I explained.

It took 7.3 seconds for everyone to absorb what I said. But by then, I was already pulling out the hair dye.

**:*:*:*:*:*:*:**

"My hair is bla-ack. It isn't blo-onde. My hair is nor-mal. And yours is no-ot."

"Macey, shut up. You think I enjoy having this red hair? My complexion doesn't look well with red hair!"

….

"My hair is bla-ack…."

**:*:*:*:*:*:*:**

"Wow, it really does take a long time for girls to dye there hair, doesn't it?"

"Yes. That's why a lot of girls just choose to keep chemicals out of there hair, Zach. I read that in my mom's _People_ magazine, actually."

"Grant, do I want to know why you were reading those?"

**:*:*:*:*:*:*:**

It took three hours for all of our hair to back the way it was. It was a very… interesting three hours.

Bex slowly climbed upstairs and removed the Napotine patch from Preston's forehead. Luckily, he didn't wake up. Okay, so I may or may not have put two sleeping pills in his orange juice….

Bex stared at me for a second before yawning and going to bed. The rest of the gang found their places in their beds, too.

I carefully walked to the third floor – trying not to wake anyone from the creaky steps. I didn't know exactly where I was going, I just wanted to walk. That's when I found the balcony.

It was hidden behind two Frost glass, French doors. I slung open one door and stepped onto the balcony. It was breathtaking.

Couples held hands and walked in the Quarter. Families sat on benches, sharing stories and making memories that would last a life time. A group of teens were on a Spirit-Sighting tour, and their tour guide was whispering something, causing most of the teens to look over their shoulder.

"So you found my secret hiding place."

I'll admit it, it made me jump. I spun around to find myself about a foot away from Zach. "Oh?" I replied, glancing into his eyes.

He held my gaze. "Yeah, I came up here last night. Sat here for hours. Just looking and watching other people. It's almost like a movie. Watching everyone go and come. It's-"

"Amazing." I finished for him.

Finally he dropped his eyes to floor for a second – just a second – but it was long enough for me to turn back around and lean against the railing.

He stepped next to me, and I was vaguely aware that our elbows were touching.

Have you ever had one of those moments, where you're not thinking about anything, but at the same time, you're thinking about everything? A million thoughts are flooded in your head, but not one of them makes a bit of sense to say out loud, or to think to hard about. So, random thoughts go in and out of your head, and then there's this strange silence in your head when someone else speaks. Like, you heard every word they said, but it's the same thing as those thoughts. They don't make any sense.

Well, that's what happened.

And then, I fainted.

**A/N: Hey! So, don't kill me for not updating in forever. And I'm sorry if this chapter isn't the best chapter I've ever written. Seriously, I know it's not that good, but I also don't think it's all that **_**bad**_**. It's un-betad and it is only 883 words. Sorry. **

**QUESTIONS:**

**When and why did we establish that Grant was stupid? I mean, he did go to a school for geniuses for a semester. Just sayin'.**

**Does anyone else love watching Meekakitty on Youtube? I do. That girl is hilarious.**


	7. Chapter 7

"It's nice for your lazy ass to finally join us," was the first thing I heard after waking up from fainting. And for those of you who don't know, passing out sucks – even roughly 19 hours later. My head hurt, my muscles felt sore, and even though I had been sleeping for quite a while, I was still tired as all get out.

"Thanks, Macey." I was kind of expecting my best friends to be concerned, but then I remembered that this was Macey and Bex we're talking about. And while they do care about me, if I seem okay to them, they won't waste too many brain cells worrying about me. "So have we come up with how to tell Preston yet?"

"They've already filled me in. It's nice to see you again, Cammie. And how's your head?" Preston said from the corner of the living room – apparently I had been crashed out on the couch all night and half of the day.

I smiled. "It's not too bad, considering the conditions," I lied. It actually felt like… like… how do I put this? Okay, so imagine fifty tiny faeries. Tinkerbelle sized faeries. Now imagine that they are wearing ice skates and are sliding around on a little faerie ice rink. Their ice rink was my brain. That is how bad it hurt.

Zach and Grant waltzed into the living room. "Hey, Cams. Cameroon. Camigan. Camster. How you feeling?" Grant asked.

I sighed. "I feel fine," I said out loud, but was mentally screaming: IT IS SO NOT FINE AND ARE YOU ALL FUCKING STUPID I PASSED OUT AND MY HEAD IS BEING DAMAGED BY ICE SKATING FAERIES. "And Cammie is fine by me, Grant," I said a second later, because I really didn't want him calling me Camster. Camster rhymes with hamster and hamsters are disgusting rodents that often eat their own feces.

"I mean, I know I'm sexy, Cammie, but it's nothing to _pass out_ over," Zach said.

I rolled my eyes. "You're an asshole."

He quickly replied, "Oh, so now you're trying to play it off cool. Don't want to seem like you're easy to get."

I just repeated, "You're an asshole."

"Bex, Mom and Dad are fighting again!" Macey shouted.

I glared. "Shut up, McHenry," Zach said.

"Don't tell my friends to shut up," I told him.

Bex spoke over us, "Both of you stop talking."

Grant, for some ungodly reason chose then to say, "Make me."

Bex looked terrifying when she said, "Little boy, you don't _want_ me to make you."

"Um… so do I, like, train now or something?" Preston's voice brought us all out of our argumentative state, in a matter of minutes we were in the basement, training Preston Winters.

* * *

Preston was terrible. I mean absolutely one hundred percent horrifying. _Liz_ would have kicked his ass if they ever fought. Guys, Liz is 4'11 and doesn't weigh one hundred pounds soaking wet. He was _that_ bad.

The best/worst part about it though, is that he realizes how bad he is, but he is not embarrassed _at all_. Not one iota of shame. I don't know whether to make fun of him or compliment him for being the most confident guy in the universe. Either way, it made training him even more amusing/terrifying.

Anyways, after I took a shower and got dressed and all that fun stuff, I was sitting in the living room and writing down the things that we needed to work on more (which was most of it) and the things he nailed (a grand total of two things) when Macey came inside the house with a handful of mail.

"One, two, three, four, five, six letters for Preston," she shrugged. "One for you, and one for all of us."

I snorted, "For Preston to be so dorky, he is astonishingly popular."

Macey shook her head. "Nah, four of these are from his mom." She stared at the staircase for a moment, as if she was going to bring them to Preston, and then changed her mind. She just screamed until everybody came down stairs. Well _almost_ everybody.

"Where's Zach?"

"…"

I stood up and started to go up the stairs – we _all_ needed to know what was in that letter. "Zach?" I checked his room first, then the others, but he was nowhere to be found. I was looking in Macey's room when I realized where he was.

Quickly, I ran to and swung open the French doors. Sure enough, there he stood. "Hey, Gallagher Girl."

I smiled. "We have a letter. It's probably important so we should probably go dow-" I started, but Zach cut me off.

"Actually, I think there's something a little more important to talk about. Cammie, what happened to you last night?"

I was taken aback. "I fainted," I said, in a "duh" voice, trying to play it off cool so we could go down stairs and see what was in the letter.

"No shit, Sherlock. But why did you faint?" he asked.

I couldn't believe it. He was actually going to stand there and interrogate me about this. "Well, I didn't do it on purpose, you know. I don't know why I fainted." I went on, "But I do know that we need to get down stairs so…"

He shook his head. "Cammie, I'm serious. Maybe you should call your mom. They could send a doctor over here. It's not exactly normal to randomly pass out."

"Well thank you for that insight, Doctor Goode. But really, I feel fine. Trust me. Nobody else is concerned."

"This shouldn't be taken lightly," he pressed.

I didn't know whether to feel flattered that he actually cared, or just weirded out that he was actually going to try to contact my mother to get me a doctor. I didn't know whether he liked me, or if he was just watching out for me because we were on a mission together. I made a mental note to have Macey translate for me.

I sighed, "Okay, look, if it happens again I promise that I'll tell my mom and we'll get a doctor to come check me out. Can we please go down now?" My promise seemed to relieve him a little bit, and he finally agreed to come see the letter.

When we reached the bottom, Grant was holding up six pieces of paper. "We," he said, "are taking a trip to the Audubon Zoo tomorrow."

I rolled my eyes. "Please be serious. What was _actually _in the letter?"

Bex coughed, "He's not mucking around, Cammie. You're mother sent us six tickets to the zoo. The _fucking _ zoo."

"What the fuck?" Zach said, which were pretty much my exact thoughts. "That's awesome!" he added, which were definitely _not_ my exact thoughts.

"Why the hell are we going to the zoo when we could be using precious time to train Pres-"

"Shut up!" Grant suddenly shouted. "I love this song!" he said in a voice that was not any softer.

"This is a commercial…" Bex reminded him.

Grant stood up and started dancing this extremely odd dance skip grind thing which kind of freaked me out while he was singing, "It's a pillow… it's a pet… it's a pillow pet!"

On the average day, the Audubon has roughly five hundred people in it. Five hundred strangers that are going to see Grant, and see me with Grant, and know that I know Grant. I mean, can you really blame me for not looking forward to it?

**A/N: Long overdue, I know. I hope you guys like it. I'm sorry if it was a let-down. Reviews of constructive criticism would be great! Seriously, the more comments I get, the more motivated I get t write. So please, review away! Thanks**

**Question: Are you guys liking this? Or should I scrap it?**

**~Spencer**


	8. Chapter 8

"Where the fuck are the monkeys?"

I looked down at my map of the zoo and traced my fingers along the road. "Past the elephants," I answered, folding it back up and shoving it into my pocket. I pulled Preston aside and nodded at a fairly short man wearing an orange shirt, holding hands with what seemed to be his daughter while telling him, "Get the last four digits of his credit card number." He looked up at me and raised his eyebrows. "Preston, we've spent the last week together. You're great at tailing. You can do it," I assured him.

Preston smiled and replied, "Yeah. Yeah, thanks, Cam. I guess I'll see you all in a little bit?" I nodded and went back to the group, while Preston walked in the exact opposite direction. I felt a whole lot like a proud mom.

"You feeling okay, Cammie?" Zach asked when I reached them. "I mean, it's really hot and you fainted last week. I don't want anyone ending up dead from a trip to the zoo."

I closed my eyes. He'd been doing this all week. _"How's your head?" "You should probably take a break. No need to push anything." "I found a doctor that's just a couple of blocks away. Feel like you should visit?" _And that's just listing a few. At first, it was sweet. Here's this boy, a rather cute boy, and he's worried about me. But then it turned into overprotective-brother-worrying, and is now borderline I-have-lung-cancer-and-he's-my-mom worrying. It got old really fast.

"Yeah, Zach. I feel fine. I can handle a little heat." I tried not to, but I heard the annoyance intertwined with my words. He looked doubtful. "Seriously, Zach. I'm one hundred percent okay."

"Hey, me and Bex are going to see the alligators. We'll meet you guys later!" Macey shouted at the three of us from a few yards away.

"Ouch."

"What?"

"You're biffles just ditched you for alligators."

I stared at Grant. "First of all, don't say biffles. No one says that over the age of eight. Secondly, they did not _ditch_ me for alligators. That's crazy talk."

Zach shrugged. "I don't know, Gallagher Girl. It certainly looked like some serious baffle ditching right there."

I shook my head. "No,no, you guys don't them. They wouldn't… no. They would never-" I stopped mid-sentence because I realized Grant and Zach were absolutely correct. I, Cameron Morgan, had just been ditched. "Oh, my God. You guys, I just got ditched for alligators."

"We know."

"Yeah, that's exactly what we were saying."

"_I got ditched-"_

"We're all on the same page there, honey."

"_-for fucking alligators_. What the hell?"

Zach and Grant stared at me like I was insane. And to be fair, maybe I was. But, c'mon, what shape would you guys be in if you got _ditched_ for _alligators_. I mean, really. I crossed my arms. "Well, fine. Two can play at that game."

"Cammie…"

I shook my head and started walking to the seals. I went to the space under the tank, where you could look up and see the seals swimming all around above you. Apparently, the guys had followed. And so had the man in the bright orange shirt. Only now, his shirt was dark green, he was wearing a hat, and his daughter was nowhere in sight. _Irony_, I thought, _you can be so funny at times_. What are the chances of me sending Preston off to tail some guy, and then the man turns out to be tailing us.

I looked at the man, but he didn't return my stare. He kept his eyes locked on Zach. It took my .8 seconds to realize that he was pulling out a gun.

My spy instincts should have taken over. But instead of confiscating the pistol from the name and knocking him out cold like I'd been trained to do, I started running, grabbed Zach's hand, and pulled him with me out of the way. I heard the bullet connect with the cave wall, which only made me run faster. Zach's hand was still in mine, and I had no intention of letting go. He would've ran back to Grant. But I couldn't let him. Grant would be fine.

I saw a police man standing not too far from us and sprinted to him. "Help! A man pulled a gun on us! He fired, but-" my sentence was punctuated by the police man's hand connecting with my head. The ground rushed up to meet me. Black started fogging my vision; I heard another thud, and a good amount of screaming. I tried to keep my eyes open. I tried to stay focused. But within seconds I was out.

**BREAK**

When I came to, I was freezing, my shoes were lying next me, and Zach was facing a wall that had several holes in it. "Zach?" I called out, but my voice didn't sound familiar. My throat was dry and my lips were cracked. "Zach?" I tried again, but got nothing in return except for a loud bang of his hand entering the wall. I lied back down and looked around. White walls. A small window that let some light in, but had a cage on the outside of it. A chair in the middle of the room. And a bright red door.

Suddenly, a sharp pain hit me and I let out a short scream. It was enough to get Zach's attention. He spun around and walked over to me, kneeling down when he reached me. "Cammie. I'm so sorry."

"For what?" I inquired.

He sniffed. "If I was paying attention-" he stopped and ran his hand through his hair. "God, if I was half the spy I should be, I would've noticed him. I would've stopped him and then we wouldn't be here. Dammit, Cammie, I'm so sorry."

I reached out and grabbed his hand. "It's not your fault. It's… it's no one's. Except for the guys who did this."

He shot up and went back to his "punching wall." "I'm supposed watch out for guys like him! For the people who create the faults." He punched the wall again. "I'm supposed to protect you."

I sat up. "_You_ are _not_ supposed to protect me. I'm supposed to protect me. You're supposed to protect you. I can protect myself. I don't need _you_ watching out for me."

He snorted. "Even if you had a thousand highly trained operatives you wouldn't be out of danger."

I was in pure fury. I smacked the ground. "What's that supposed to mean? I'm in a school for spies. I'm a _spy_, and you're sitting here telling me that I can't protect myself from danger? Because why? Because I'm a girl?"

He sighed, "I wasn't saying that you're spy abilities weren't up to par. I meant that there are a lot of people who seem to keep putting you in danger. Who _create_ the danger you live in."

I lied back down. "I feel like a toddler."

"Why?" Zach asked.

I smiled and closed my eyes. "I just got kidnapped from a zoo. I'm pretty sure that's, like, in the brochure about common places kids go missing."

He laughed. And I was very happy to realize that even though I'd been kidnapped, I wasn't alone in planning the great escape.

**A/N: I have no idea how the Audubon zoo is set up. So, yeah. Just roll with it. Review? Gracias.**

**Thanks to:**

**James Vega. For existing. **


	9. Chapter 9

Okay, so normally, when you're a seventeen year old girl, there are lots of thoughts and questions going through your mind. Now imagine that you've gotten kidnapped at a zoo, which you only went to because your mother (or at least you think your mother) had sent you tickets, and you happened to get abducted with none other than Zachary fucking Goode. The amount of questions and thoughts in my brain was overwhelming. And annoying.

Zach and I had been in this stupid room for four hours. My stomach growled, and I instantly regretted skipping breakfast before we left the mansion. "They'll bring us food eventually," Zach commented, obviously hearing my stomach's rebellious state.

"Or they'll just leave us to starve," I countered while tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. "I don't know exactly what the point of that would be, but they could do that, you know."

Goode closed his eyes and shook his head. "We need to figure out how to-" he started, but I cut him off with the shake of my head. I knew exactly where he was headed with the sentence, and didn't want to risk any hidden surveillances find out our plan.

"What do you think the chair is for?" I asked, trying to lead the conversation into a different direction.

Zach shrugged. "Honestly, I have no idea. Too weak to be used for, you know, torture. And I doubt they would stick one random piece of furniture in here for comfort."

I cannot tell you how sick I was of the room. Of the white walls and the caged window and the chair and the red door. Especially the red door. It just screamed "Hey! Open me and you will die!" Of course, we had tried opening it, but it wouldn't budge, and while Zach and I are strong, we weren't physically capable of taking down a metal door.

I had just decided that red was the absolute worst color for a metal door – the silver classic look is much more professional – when the same sharp pain shot through me again. A yelp of pain escaped my lips and Zach rushed over to me.

"God," I said, "I wish I knew what this was coming from!" I shrieked. The pain happened on what seemed to be no certain schedule. Sometimes, a half hour would go by and I wouldn't feel anything. Other times, it would happen with only a minute or two in between.

Zach gave me a weak smile. "It'll be alright. Stay in the game, you know?" he assured me.

"Dammit."

"What?"

I smiled. "You made me lose. You made me think about The Game."

Zach let out a short laugh, and his grey stormy eyes lit up. "Shit, now I lost too."

I sat up, right by Zach, and it felt really great to have someone at my side – someone to talk to. "My dad and I used to play it all the time. Every time I thought about The Game and announced that I had lost, he'd tell me, 'No you didn't, you're brain cheated,' just so we could keep playing." I looked up at Zach.

"I'm sure he was a great dad."

I nodded. "He was." I heard my voice crack, but ignored it. "I used to get so mad at him, though. In sixth grade, I came home and told my parents that I had a boyfriend. You should've seen my dad's face. God," I laughed, "it was priceless. And not in a good way either. Murderous can't even begin to cover the look in my father's eyes. He was so overprotective. If it was up to him, I would grow up to be an old lady, living by herself with twenty seven cats."

Zach snorted, "He wouldn't like me."

"Of course he would," I argued. "Why wouldn't he?"

"Because of this," he said, before pressing his lips to mine.

* * *

"Dammit, Mack! I don't care how much trouble it will cost you! Two of my students were abducted, and I hate to bring personal matters into this, but one happens to be my daughter!" Rachel Morgan had her phone squeezed tight in her hand while speaking into it. She had doubts about hiring Mack to organize the Winters Project, as it had been named, and now she scolded herself for not handling it on her own.

"Ma'am, I assure you, we're doing what we can to find Goode and Morgan. Would like for us to retrieve the others?" Mack replied in an edgy, but still respectful tone.

Rachel sighed. "No, sir. But I want operatives all over New Orleans and full security measures taken on the mansion."

There was hesitation on the other end of the line. "Rachel, I cannot comprehend why you want to keep the others here."

"You aren't being paid to _comprehend_, you're being paid to _do_." The headmistress switched the phone to her opposite hand. "Stop questioning me and _do_ as I say. Are we clear, Mack?"

"Yes ma'am. I'll recruit the necessary operatives for the Winters Project."

Rachel hit the end button and slammed the phone down. How had this slipped passed her? How did the operatives assigned to guard the Winters Project group not notice? Rachel had instructed Mack to find the best. He failed to do his job, and her daughter was paying for it. Zach was paying for it.

Rachel plopped into her office chair, flung open a drawer, and pulled out a photo album. As she flipped through it, page by page, she relived each memory that was intertwined with the photograph. Cameron's first day of school. Cameron and her father seeing each other for the first time in months. Rachel and Cameron playing jump rope. Then, later ones. A picture Cameron, Liz, and Bex with arms around each other, smiling for days. A picture of Cameron and Macey. One of Rachel, Abby, and Solomon, posing in front of the main gates. And finally, one Rachel had snapped the day before the girls went climbing up the building. A sob racked Rachel's chest, but she didn't try to stop it. She let them come. She let them all come.

**A/N: Holy crap, this is the quickest update I've ever done. Ten points for me? ;) So, yeah. Some mild clarification (if I just explained the whole thing in one chapter, it wouldn't be much of a story, would it?), a little bit of Zach/Cammie romance, and a little bit of Rachel's POV on what's happening. Hope you guys are enjoying! Review?**

**If you don't know what The Game is:**

**Basically, as soon as I tell you the rules you are playing the game.**

**1. You must not think of "The Game" or you will lose.**

**2. Upon losing "The Game" you must announce it to your peers by shouting "I just lost the game!"**

**3. You can only win the game upon death.**

**The game is not a real thing, it's a theoretical thing, and when you think of it, you lose it. It's so confusing!**


	10. Chapter 10

After lying on the ground for way longer than a person ever should, that stupid metal door finally swung open, revealing a tall woman. She had on a tight black dress that clung to her, brown hair falling over her shoulders, and thigh high white boots. She was gorgeous, but she looked a lot like a prostitute.

"Hi, I'm Jordan."

Zach and I stared.

Jordan sniffed. "Uh, okay, so this is kind of awkward." She shifted her weight onto her back leg.

Zach and I continued to stare.

"First of all, I'd like to say that we're not the 'bad guys'," –she used air quotes –"like you think we are. I mean, my employees shot at you and abducted you, but really, were not _bad_."

The staring went on.

Jordan nodded and closed the door behind her before making her way to the chair and plopping down in it. "Okay, Cameron, right?"

"Yeah," I finally spoke. "Yeah, that's me."

She turned her dark, stormy eyes over to Zach. "Zachary Goode?"

He nodded.

Jordan smiled. "Great, great. Right, well I'm Jordan. I said that earlier. Anyways, I'm just going to fill you in on what's happening."

_What. The. Fuck. _This girl, clearly one of the high authorities (she referred to the men at the zoo as "my employees"), was sitting down, and not only having a conversation with us, but _explaining the situation_. Maybe I've watched one too many episodes of Criminal Minds, but I was ninety-nine percent positive that this wasn't the usual protocol for kidnaps.

"The workers here were instructed to take you safely, and really, you were not - and currently are not - in danger at any time. I swear I would never harm either of you. You two are the main point of this whole operation."

I interjected, "Operation?"

She nodded and pursed her full lips into a thin, straight line. "Unfortunately, we at UAW have been pushed into a corner."

Finally, Zach said something. "Wait UAW? I've never even heard of that."

"That's the problem," Jordan replied, a frown growing on her face. "UAW has such an important mission, one that cannot be ignored, and just one goal: make America stronger." She let the phrase hang in the air, as if waiting for Zach and me to comment. When she realized we were going to stay silent, Jordan went on, "UAW – United American Warriors – wants to pull everyone together to make one, unstoppable force. Just imagine if you had Army, policemen, detectives, the Navy, FBI, and the CIA all working _together_. One uniform. And everybody standing shoulder to shoulder. No one would want to fight us. And I mean _no one_."

That's when I realized that this poor girl and her co-workers were messed up in the head. My guess was this: the UAW consisted of _maybe_ twenty or so people who were working on something that literally would never happen for the following reasons: a) the people she mentioned already were working together. They all had very different jobs, but one cannot do its job without the other. And b) the government doesn't usually take advice at all, especially from cult-like groups.

"Then why do you need us?" Zach asked.

Jordan quickly responded, "Oh, well we're going to hold you until the CIA agrees. You're top operatives, correct?"

"Wait, wait, wait," I sputtered, "you're seriously holding us hostage?"

She tilted her head to the side. "The CIA cannot afford to lose top dogs. Trust me, I've seen some of their recent work. It ain't pretty."

"Oh, God," I sighed.

"I know! It's terrific. We even have UAW t-shirts. I designed them. Want to see?" Jordan asked, bursting with enthusiasm.

"Not really," Zach sighed. Jordan's enthusiasm deflated.

"Oh. Okay. Well, um, follow me to the kitchen. I'm sure you're hungry," she said quietly, spinning around and walking quickly away.

**BREAK**

"So, there's a window over there, but it's too small for you to fit through-"

"Cammie-"

"And there's that door over there, but it's guarded-"

"Cam-"

"Right over there is a hallway, but I have no idea where it leads-"

"Cameron Morgan."

His use of my whole name stopped my planning. "What, Zachary Goode?" I replied shortly.

He looked down. "About that kiss-"

"Seriously, Zach," I snapped. He looked hurt for a moment, but then his usual expression was back. I went on, but softer. "Look, we can talk about that later. I _want_ to talk about that later. But now isn't the time, Zach."

He nodded. "Right. The hallway?"

"The hallway," I agreed. "Normally, it'd be our best bet, but here, I'm not sure. It could just be a hallway with more stupid red doors. Who knows how many hostages they keep here. Or…"

"Or what?" he prompted.

I sighed, "Or it could be an exit. But we have no way of knowing for sure. I say we wait it out, find out what we can, before we make our move." I shoved the last bite of my sandwich into my mouth.

He agreed, and grabbed his and my own paper plates to bring them to the trash. I looked around the room, figuring out the set up. Once I realized we were in what used to be a factory, figuring out the floor plan got a whole lot easier. There was the main room, the one where they had set up a makeshift kitchen/dining place/living room that had a small counter, a sink, four tables, a tiny television that didn't have cable or DVD, and a floral sofa. An arch in the wall that leads into a hallway was on the left wall, and on the front wall double doors stood tall, and several windows were scattered in no particular set up, which frustrated me to no end.

On the right wall, a staircase led up to what used to be different offices, but what is now different bedrooms/cells (Jordan assured me that once they had time, they would move two beds into mine and Zach's cell). A small bathroom with a shower is in the middle of the hallway.

Zach came back to the table and sat down. "So what are you thinking about this place?"

I shook my head. "It's insane, what they want to do. They don't even seem to realize that keeping us here against our will is illegal."

"There has to be someone smart here, though. At least a little bit smart, I mean. The CIA makes finding operatives difficult – it's not like you can just Google it. It would take at least two weeks to crack into the files."

"But what educated person thinks that UAW will succeed?" I gasped. "This whole thing – this club or group or cult or whatever you want to call it – is absolutely insane. It's like Power Puff Girls shit."

"Power Puff Girls?"

I nodded. "Yeah, you know, we'd be the Power Puff Girls, and they're Mo-Jo-Jo-Jo, all trying to take over the world. Seriously, it's pretty much _that exact plot_."

Zach raised his eyebrows and lifted up a corner of his mouth. "Who the hell is Mo-Jo-Jo-Jo?"

I sank into my hands. "My entire childhood," I replied. "And apparently, part of my teen life too."

**A/N: Sooooooooooooo. That wasn't really funny. But I needed to explain! What do you guys think of Jordan? And the UAW? I kind of wanted UAW to have a Westboro Church feel to it. I mean, that church didn't kidnap anybody, but they're definitely crazy. Review? ;)**


	11. Chapter 11

"Grant, go away," Bex said, tucking a strand of her dark brown hair behind my ear. She had spent the last two days tailing people that looked suspicious, or the people that Liz had found that could be related to the Cammie/Zach abduction, but each person led to a dead end. She was mentally exhausted, but physically tired as well, seeing as she had barely slept – her brain didn't want to stop thinking long enough to get any rest.

Grant sat down on the couch beside her, casually throwing his arm around Bex's shoulders. "Not until you tell me," he insisted.

Bex felt tears threatening to escape her eyes, and stubbornly held them in. She knew it was okay for her to be sad. Of course she knew it. But she didn't feel sad. Anger flooded through her veins – but this time, she wasn't upset with her best friend. She was fuming at herself for not being there to protect Cammie. And she didn't feel like hearing about it from anyone else. "Tell you what? To fuck off?"

Grant tilted his head and replied, "Not exactly what I was asking, no. Despite common beliefs, I'm not a complete idiot. I know when something's wrong. How are you?"

Bex pursed her lips. "I'm-" She stopped suddenly, glancing at Grant. "I just miss my best friend. Same as you." She lifted up her eyes to meet his.

"If it makes you feel better, Zach is probably the best spy I know. Cammie and Zach combined would be practically unstoppable." Bex nodded quickly, but didn't stop nervously biting her lip. "She's safe, Bex. If she's with Zach, she's safe."

It should've made her feel better, but it didn't. She still felt the hole of uneasiness in her stomach. She still was worried sick. She was still weak. But somewhere in that moment of weakness, she found the boldness to press her lips against Grant's before whispering, "Thank you," and quickly walked up the stairs.

**BREAK **

"ZachZachZachZachZach,"I whispered.

"Hmm?" he replied, half-awake.

Unlike Zach, I hadn't been able to sleep. Instead, I spent my night looking, searching, trying to find _something_ that could help us out. And I had just found it.

"There's a something hidden. I think it's a passageway. Right here. Look, Zach!" A passageway could mean an exit. I was willing to risk it.

Zach ran his fingers through his hair and stood up. "Cammie, why would there be a passageway in an old factory?" In two quick strides, Zach was standing beside me.

I cocked a hip and tilted my head, one corner of my mouth lifting up. "Maybe it wasn't always a factory. I mean, they probably just renovated it to _make_ it a factory. And then it shut down or whatever, and now it's a secret cult clubhouse. But think about what it was before…" I trailed off, my imagination going bonkers within my skull, just thinking about all the possibilities.

"Just… just open it. Let's see where it leads," he suggested, motioning to the small hole in the wall that my hand was lying centimeters from. I quickly poked it, and the boards split, pushing a touchpad out.

"Enter 4-digit code to be granted access," a robotic voice instructed.

I scoffed. "Only four digits. Liz would have laughed in this robot-whore's face."

Zach let out a short chuckle. "Why is the robot a whore?"

I shrugged. "It's easy. Get it? I bet that dumbass Jordan set it up…"

Zach took a step back. "I don't mind Jordan, actually, other than the fact that-"

"She's a dumbass?" I guessed.

"-is part of the UAW," Zach finished, ignoring me.

I blinked. "Which makes her a dumbass."

For some reason, I really detested Jordan. Like, I'm sure her being in the UAW was a huge part of it, but it was more, too. The way she walked annoyed me. The way she dressed made me want to gag. And how she talked pretty much gave me the urge to punch baby kittens.

Anyways, Zach ignored me again, which agitated me even more, and then suggested that we should probably wait until we figure out for sure what the code is so we don't set off an alarm or anything. I agreed, and pushed the touchpad back in place and closed the boards that kept it hidden from view.

"What time is it?" Zach asked, sitting on the edge of his bed (Jordan delivered them right before dinner) two nights before).

I guessed, "Probably four-ish." Normally, I would totally know exactly what time it was, but my brain had been concentrating on other things. Like how to escape from an abduction. (I came up with fourty-two ways in the few hours before finding the hole in the wall.) (All of which I thoroughly debunked in about 15 seconds.)

"I'm wide awake. Especially after finding that, I don't think I'll be able to fall asleep. My mind is too busy."

"I know what you mean," I replied, sitting down on my bed, which was opposite of his. My brain was an insistent toddler, refusing to go to sleep. After a brief pause, I finally sighed, "So, I've been thinking…"

"Everybody take cover!" he joked.

Like the mature young lady I was, I stuck my tongue out before going on, "I've been thinking about that kiss."

"Oh."

I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and started to at the hem of my shorts. "Zach, I really like you. And I do think about you _in that way_," I said, pulling out my middle school vocabulary. "But I think right now we need to focus on getting out of here. I wouldn't want our relationship to keep us from working as well as we can," I finished.

He threw his head back. "And then what?"

"What do you mean?"

He lowered his head and met my eyes. It took a great deal of effort to not look away. "I mean, after we get out of here, then what?"

"Then we can try to make this work. I promise."

Zach smiled sadly, which all but tore my heart to pieces. "Cammie, I really care about you. If you don't want to have relationship with me, you don't have to make excuses-"

I interrupted him, "Zach, believe me, I want to have a relationship with you. I just don't want to start dating you when we're both under this much stress. Let's wait until things calm down." He nodded and picked up the Moleskin notebook and pen he'd stolen from downstairs and started writing.

"Please, for the love of all that is good in this world, do not tell me that you are starting a diary."

He laughed so hard that his body was shaking before gasping out, "No, no, I'm trying to figure out the code."

I let out a short laugh and then quietly told him, "Well, I think I'm finally ready to get some rest. Wake me if you figure it out."

"Goodnight, Cameron Morgan."

"Good four o'clock in the morning, Zachary Goode."

That night (morning?) I dreamt about Zachary Goode.

**A/N: WE'RE GETTING PLACES, PEOPLE. THIS IS PROGRESS. I just ate, like, half a jar of Nutella while editing this. Because I edited it, and then the power went out and my computer was all like "I hate you, bitch" and turned off without saving, and then my body was like, "You can't edit this again without devouring Nutella."**

**Oh yeah, I have a poll. And Chuck Bass is not getting near enough love on it. Check it out? Or not. Whatever. :) **

**~Spencer**


	12. Chapter 12

"Zero, zero, zero, zero," I said aloud as I pressed it on the screen.

"Incorrect," the robot-whore informed me.

"One-two-three-four." I poked the numbers.

"Incorrect. Warning: Alarm will sound if typed incorrectly once more."

I sighed and closed the bricks that hid it. Zach was with Jordan, trying to see what he could find out about it. She was kind of ditzy, and it wouldn't have surprised me if it was on a sticky note attached to her mirror or something.

Zach and I had kind pretty much completely ruled out the possibility that someone had inserted the passageway before it had been a factory; we were ninety-nine percent sure it had been created after the UAW took control of it. The technology was too new, too untouched, to have been from twenty plus years ago.

So far, we hadn't made much progress on what the code was, but we had ruled out many possibilities. For instance, I knew now for sure that it was not something as stupid as 0000 or 1234. Which helped, I guess. But not as much as I would have liked it to.

And we could only guess twice every twenty-four hours; the third time you entered the wrong code, it would apparently sound an alarm. I had looked around the building and didn't see any evidence of any sirens or anything, but still. We had to play it safe here. We couldn't be too risky, or we'd get caught.

But then I started wondering about getting caught. What if they just thought, "Oh, hey, they two kids don't want to cooperate, so let's set them free. What harm could they possibly do?" but then I'd remember that Jordan had labeled Zach and me as "two of the top operatives," (which was very honoring in any other situation) and I doubted that they would let us go that easily.

I sighed and waited for Zachary to get back. Ever since we'd talked about the kiss, it'd been much easier to focus on getting out. And did I ever want to _get out_. I was stir crazy, to be honest. Staying in the same building – going outside for half an hour only on Saturdays – was driving me to insanity. When he finally did come back, I mentioned this to Zach, and helped me up off the bed and whispered to me, "I have a good idea to help that."

* * *

I jumped up, and aimed my kick at his gut. When my foot connected with his stomach, he grabbed my foot and flung it upwards, causing me to fall onto my butt. In the moment it took me to get back up, he was already right in front of me. He placed one hand on my shoulder and attempted to spin me the other way, but I was too quick. In half a second, I was out of his grasp and my fist pounded into his side. He made a noise – of pain or anger, I'm not quite sure – and lurched forward, reaching out to grab me again. But I was already out of the door and in the crowd, and I knew he wouldn't spot me. I was still the Chameleon, after all. Even if was in a cult's headquarters.

He smirked and turned and went back into the room, and I abandoned the people and went back to him. "Zachary Goode. You've gotten fairly bad at drills."

He chuckled and sunk down into his bed. "You've gotten fairly good at fighting. And honestly, I didn't want to hurt you. We need to be in good shape to get out of this."

I sniffed and crossed my arms, but I was fighting a smile and I'm sure he could tell. "I'm not so sure you want to get out of this. You and Jordan, I mean, I was practically third-wheeling it at lunch," I commented. I was joking, yes, but it definitely had a place of truth. Zach was, well, _Zaching_, and Jordan was eating it up. She was practically drooling over him at the table earlier that day. It was disgusting.

He stood and walked towards the door while saying, "Haven't you ever heard of 'sleeping with the enemy?'" He paused by me, patted my head as if I was puppy, and then continued walking out of our room.

My head swam, and I didn't know if he was kidding or being serious, and I was wondering if he still liked me, or maybe he never even liked me in the first place, in which case I could just pretend I had been joking the other night. But of all those thoughts, there was one that spoke louder than all the others:

I need Macey McHenry.

* * *

Macey was laying on Preston's bed, flipping through _Vogue_ absent-mindedly when Grant walked in and sat next to her. "Whatchya doin'?" he asked, peaking at her magazine.

"Idolizing Anne Hathaway. And who are you? Isabella?" she replied, thinking of the charming cartoon character from **Phineas and Ferb** and the funny way she always said the same thing Grant had just asked.

His forehead creased in confusion. "No, I'm Grant. Anyways, Bex called Liz, and I called Jonas, and they're both freaking out, but they discovered that the UAW has a website. Problem is, you have to have a password in order to enter it."

Macey snorted, tossing the magazine off the bed, "That doesn't sound like a problem, knowing those two. They'll have it cracked in-"

"Two point five seconds," Grant interrupted. "It was very impressive to witness, I must say."

Macey nodded and sat up. "Yeah, that's really quick, even for those two."

"Well, I don't mean to make them out to be less of geniuses or anything, but it was only a four-digit passcode. Still though, very impressive."

Macey agreed, and got off the bed, and found Bex. Rebecca didn't even hesitate to answer Macey's unspoken question. "Los Angeles. Waldo, Alabama. Chamisal, New Mexico."

"Looks like we're leaving New Orleans, then." Macey strutted to the window and fake cried while whimpering, "Bourbon Street, I will miss you. You will be in my heart forever. Goodbye."

The four remaining guests at the mansion then all returned to their bedrooms to pack up and hit the road. When they piled into the car a half hour later, Macey's hand was shaking as she entered the words "Los Angeles" into the destination bar of the GPS.

* * *

**A/N: Well. It's been quite too long since I've seen you guys. I actually kind of forgot about this sweet fanfiction world until I got an email saying that "That's What You Get" by ellenfp had been updated (if you haven't read that fanfic, do it now!).**

**Also, I realized that I have 150 "followers" for this story, which is mind-blowing. Thank you guys so much, really. It means the world to me.**

**I hope you guys enjoyed this. Admittedly, it isn't my best. But, yeah, I hope you liked it regardless. : )**

**Eww, mid-term exams are coming up. I wish everybody who has to take them (myself being one of them) good luck!**

**~Spencer**


	13. Chapter 13

We were going to break out.

I was sick of being locked in some giant building with crazy cult people and I had to break out. I couldn't taker anymore crappy food or more stupid red doors or the stupid flirty things Jordan did when Zach was around. I was going insane.

I mean, let's face it, if I could break out of Gallagher Academy as a freshman, I was sure as hell could break out of this place with no problems. Zachary, however, was not so sold on the idea.

"Look, Cammie, we just still aren't really sure exactly who we're up against. I don't want to take a risk that could end up with the two of us dead."

"They're not going to kill us, Zach," I assured him. "They couldn't kill us. It was us not having our guard up and them getting lucky that got us here. Not their skill, or our lack of training. Besides, they couldn't get other operatives to hold here if they killed us."

He shook his head. "I'm not so sure, Cam. Like you said, they're crazy. Who knows what they would and wouldn't do."

I snorted, "Have you met Jordan? Do you honestly think she could take the two of us?" He didn't say anything. "Besides, it's not like we're going to leave here kicking and screaming. Hopefully we'll be ten miles away before they even notice we're gone. And I think I know where an exit is," I said, thinking of the hallway Zach and I had discussed at lunch on our first day at the UAW.

He sighed and plopped down on the bed. "Just… just one or two more days, Cam. I would rather do this with the help of our friends, and I'm sure they're close to finding us."

I sat down next to Zach and leaned against him. "I sure hope so, Zach. I hope so." Now, I'm not saying that I started crying a little bit, but I'm not saying I didn't. And I'm also not saying that Zach held me and let me tear-stain his shirt until I stopped sobbing, but I'm not saying he didn't. And I'm not saying that he lifted my chin and softly touched his lips to mine once I stopped, but I sure as hell ain't saying he didn't.

* * *

I woke up the next morning at seven o'clock exactly, screaming and holding my head. The pain was back.

Zach was by my side in an instant, holding me. "Cammie, shhh, what's wrong?" I stopped screaming but couldn't speak yet. I just held my head and closed my eyes, trying my hardest to focus on anything but the sharp pain, unfortunately failing miserably. It was the only thing I could feel, the only thing I could notice, and it was killing me. "Cammie, c'mon, talk to me, here. What's going on? Tell me what's happening, Cammie. I can help you." But I knew he couldn't. I knew that he had absolutely no control over the pain that had come back.

I had to tell him what was going on, but the simple thought of speaking hurt my brain. However, I forced my mouth to move, and for a soft voice to come out of it. "The pain. The pain from the first cell here is back."

He swallowed. "Right, the room with the chair. But that was a few days ago, and it hasn't bothered you since then, right?" I remained silent. "Right, Cammie?" I nodded.

Suddenly, our door swung open and Jordan marched in, boots up to her thigh, dress only covering the bare minimum. "I heard screaming. What's going on?"

Zach was the one to speak. I expected an elaborate lie, one to convince Jordan that everything was okay, that I was fine. Instead, the truth was revealed. "The first few hours we were here, Cameron had these sharp pains. They had gone away, but now it's back. And seemingly, a lot worse."

Jordan did not look surprised. In fact, she acted like he was informing her of something completely obvious, as if he had just told her that the sky was blue. "Of course. Breison said that there would be side effects."

The pain shot through my head again, such a violent pain that even I, who had attended classes and private tutoring on how to hide pain in case of torture, could not hold in the scream of pain that escaped me.

"What do you mean, side effects? Make it stop, Jordan," Zach growled. "Please, make her pain stop."

She approached us and laid her hand on Zachary's shoulder. "I wish I could. I know it's hard, seeing a friend in pain. But there is nothing I can do except let it run its course. I'm sorry, Cammie." She seemed genuinely upset about the agony I was in, but she knew why I was in it. She was _expecting _me to be in this kind of pain. "I'm sorry," she said again, as I twitched from discomfort. Then, abruptly, the pain stopped as quickly as it had started.

A small smile grew on my face as I whispered, "It just stopped," to Zach. He just looked at Jordan.

"How can we make this never happen again?" he demanded from Jordan.

She shook her head. "We can't stop the pain, only make it weaker. But that would require you to come to our tiny makeshift medical room. Are you up for walking across the building?" she asked. I slowly stood up, my legs still shaking. I was scared, and was having a hard time hiding it. I grabbed Jordan's arm and she started leading me out of the room. I look over my shoulder to make eye contact with Zach, to silently tell him that I would be okay. But all I saw was him with face buried into his hands.

* * *

The pain kept happening, every few hours. It wasn't as sharp of a pain as it had been though, because of the medicines they had me taking. But even with a bit of numbing, it still hurt worse than anything I'd ever experienced.

I hadn't seen Zach since I left the room with Jordan to stay in the medical room. I figured that he probably wasn't allowed to visit with me until they said that the side effects had worn off. Side effects from what, I still didn't know. _I'm scared to find out. I'm so scared._

* * *

Liz and Jonas sat in front of the computer, practically shaking from watching the video they had just received. "What do we do, Jo?" He shook his head. Liz leaned forward to play the fourty second video that they'd just received once more.

"_Hi, there friends of Cameron Morgan. We know you're looking for her. And until you stop, we will keep making this happen."_ The screen changed to Cameron lying in a bed, dead asleep. Then suddenly, she shot up straight, gripping her head like it would fall off if she loosened her hold, and screaming as loud as she could. Then it changed again, to Cammie standing in a different room, with shelves of medicines beside her. Unexpectedly she fell to the ground, a short yelp coming from her, holding her head the same way she did in the last video. Then, the last video. This one didn't even have a beginning, it started with Cameron lying in a bed, hands on her head, twitching, screaming, sobbing, for fifteen torturous seconds. She was all alone. She looked so weak.

Liz had to protect her friend. But how could she find and save Cammie when searching for her resulted in this? She didn't know what to do. She sent the video to Bex and Ms. Morgan, hoping for a plan.

* * *

Rachel received the video. Joe Solomon could practically here the headmistress's heart break as she watched her daughter suffer. "Joe…"

He grabbed her shoulders. "The UAW will be destroyed, Rachel."

She knew they would be. But she wasn't willing to wait on others to fix it this time. She would handle this herself. After all, the only thing better than a Gallagher Girl is a Gallagher Mom.

**A/N: So… opinions? Love it? Hate it? Just a forewarning, the next chapter consists of drama and humor, and just a touch of seriousness. (; Review or message me if you have anything to say about the story so far! Love you all!**

**~Spencer**


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